Thursday, 21 March 2013

The time has come for the grand unveiling of the Neighbours Club's movie debut. But where is the movie? In fact, where's Rika?

Such is our lab coat-sporting girl's determination to finish editing the club's film project that she's managed to come down with a cold and pass out before actually completing the task. Thus, it's with a heavy heart that Yozora leads the way in suggesting that the screening should be cancelled, not solely because they don't want to show an unfinished film but more specifically because they don't want to watch the film amongst themselves without Rika present. As a result, the rest of the group patiently waits for Rika to recover and finish up her post-production so that the whole club can enjoy seeing the film for the first time together.

No sooner is this bit of excitement over than we find Aoi Yusa returning to the forefront of the series, this time with an absolute determination to have the Neighbours Club shut down having heard of its existence from Kodaka. However, Aoi has reckoned without the formidable powers of Yozora and Sena when it comes to getting what they want, and despite even her best-laid plans it seems that this particular after-school club is untouchable. Oh, and after all that Sena confesses to Kodaka and suggests that they should get married. Wait, what?!

Considering how overblown most anime series like to make confessions of love, I really enjoyed seeing such a throwaway outpouring from Sena in the midst of a game of Gal Gun - coupled with all of the reactions which came in its wake (including Kodaka's inevitable reaction to the whole thing), it genuinely worked well as a bolt out of the blue that was both obvious and surprising at the same time. This came at the end of an episode where nothing particularly notable happened, but at least those not particularly notable things made good use of the show's roster of characters, which all too often this series seems to have been struggling with. It's the kind of thing that reminds you why you've warmed to these characters at some point, and why you've persevered with watching this show - I just hope Sena's throwaway confession isn't, well, thrown away in the name of dragging the franchise out into further series.